Xyratex Ltd. unveiled two major enhancements to its RAID product portfolio: the F6412E RAID controller and Advanced Power Management software for the industry's highest density RAID system. Xyratex F6412E is an evolution of the company's highly successful 5000 RAID controllers that have been adopted by a large number of server and storage OEMs. Recognizing the need for vendors to shorten job completion in order to improve staff and business productivity, the F6412E RAID controller sets a new standard for Xyratex RAID storage with up to double the data transfer rate of previous generation products.

    The Xyratex F6412E RAID controller is available today. The Advanced Power Management software will initially be implemented on the 4U 48-drive F5404E RAID system and incorporated throughout the remaining Xyratex RAID family by mid-2008. The Xyratex F6412E sets a new standard for performance and efficiency, delivering up to twice the performance of the previous generation controller while minimizing electronic waste through optimal battery design. In addition, the company's new Advanced Power Management software can save up to 40 percent in power dissipation by automatically spinning down disk drives.

    Xyratex has developed a new battery technology for the F6412E that offers a service life up to 10 years rather than the standard two-to-three years of typical batteries. The extended battery life not only reduces electronic waste, but also minimizes downtime due to component replacement. This increase in transfer rate delivers maximum throughput (MB/s) for high-bandwidth applications ranging from video editing to high speed data protection to database-intensive online transaction processing.

    The APM software provides a new level of power efficiency for the industry's highest density, high-availability nearline RAID system and increases the eco-efficiency of the entire Xyratex RAID family. The software reduces energy consumption by enabling administrators to create policies that identify disk drives that have not been accessed in order to intelligently spin them down.

    It identifies groups of physical drives that are accessed in parallel and spins down and spins up drive groups to satisfy requests from applications running on attached servers. A schedulable patrol function regularly evaluates drives that have been spun down to ensure they will spin up on demand without affecting applications' performance, availability or reliability. With these new features, Xyratex OEMs can deliver high-performance storage solutions that appeal to a diverse set of markets, including video editing and high-performance computing at an extremely competitive price.

    According to Lisa Hart, vice president of marketing, Networked Storage Solutions, Xyratex, "Drawing from our expertise in high-efficiency power, reliability, and eco-efficiency, Xyratex continues to enhance customer investment in our products by delivering a new high-performance RAID system and Advanced Power Management software that sets us apart from others in the marketplace. Customer commitment is the key to our success. Delivering affordable, adaptable and proven storage solutions is how we will continue to meet our customers' demands."

    Xyratex’s F6412E storage solution solves the complex and ever-changing storage challenges small and medium businesses face. Combining Fibre Channel (FC) connectivity with Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) and Serial ATA (SATA) drive technology, the F6412E provides maximum flexibility to solutions integrators and OEMs, resulting in a cost-effective, ultra-high performance solution with the scalability and functionality necessary to meet the demands of today’s most rigorous applications.